For Immediate Release
Sunday 25 September 2022
PRESS RELEASE: Exit polls in Italy are a chilling wake up call for anti racists and anti fascists everywhere, as fascist Meloni looks set to become Italy’s Prime minister
Exit polls for the Italian election have put fascist Georgia Meloni of Brothers of Italy on course to be the next prime minister of Italy, with the fascist Brothers Of Italy overtaking Matteo Salvini’s League as the ascendant force in the right coalition.
She is predicted to win between 22-26 percent of the vote. Exit polls suggest her right-wing alliance has grabbed a solid majority, with 41-45 percent of the vote. The turnout at the close of voting was just 64.7 percent, and particularly low in poorer areas.
Anti racists and anti fascists are warning that the election of Giorgia Meloni – as the leader of a far right coalition – as Italy’s Prime Minister is a massive wake up call across Europe.
Next month will mark the one hundredth anniversary of fascism first coming to power, when Benito Mussolini became Prime Minister in Italy.
Meloni has previously described Mussolini as ‘a good politician’.
Her party, The Brothers of Italy, has its origins in the fascist Italian Social Movement (MSI), which was formed in 1946 by supporters of Mussolini.
Giorgia Meloni joined the MSI at the age of fifteen.
Meloni’s party ‘The Brothers of Italy’ has continued using the same image of the flame, as the MSI used, in the party’s logo. This image was also used by the National Alliance (AN) which was born out of the MSI. In an attempt to portray itself as respectable, the AN described itself as ‘post-fascist’.
Silvio Berlusconi has previously entered into coalitions with both the MSI and AN.
Today in Italy, the far right coalition is composed of Berlusconi’s Forza Italia, Matteo Salvini’s League, and Meloni’s Brothers of Italy.
The Brothers of Italy’ – like the AN did before it – has employed a strategy of trying to distance itself from its fascist past, in an attempt to achieve success electorally, and entry into governmental coalitions.
Though nostalgia for Mussolini’s dictatorship means the quest for respectability remains a point of tension within the Italian far right.
Meloni’s victory comes at a time when the far right Swedish Democrats have just achieved strong electoral success, and when Marine Le Pen’s National Rally have become the second largest party in the French Parliament.
Meloni sees Viktor Orban, the far right leader of Hungary, as an inspiration. The European parliament recently declared that Hungary can no longer be seen as a full democracy, with democratic standards being routinely ignored.
With the danger posed by the far right and fascism across Europe, join the International Conference on 15 October to join with anti racist and anti fascists from around the world, organising to stop the far right internationally:
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/stand-up-to-racism-international-conference-tickets-366717721577
Stand Up To Racism sends its solidarity today to Italian anti fascists, opposing Meloni and the ‘Brothers of Italy’.
Anne Parry, an Italian citizen and anti racist said: ‘I’ve been down at the polling station watching the votes being counted. As an anti racist and anti fascist, I was appalled to see the voting papers literally piling high for Giorgia Meloni, the leader of the extreme right party, whose coalition with the Lega and Berlusconi is sweeping to a huge victory. I left the polling station feeling deeply depressed, only to read that Meloni is already being congratulated by the Hungarian autocrat Victor Orban.
“Our only hope is that the three leaders will fight among themselves, but the threat to democracy in Italy and Europe is real, and we will need to work harder than ever to fight back against the forces that base their success on division and hatred.”
Weyman Bennett co-convenor of Stand Uo To Racism said
“The Italian elections reflect the wider danger of fascist influenced parties threatening democracy, using the rise in virulent racism and Islamophobia to make gain political gains for fascism.
“Ultimately, they will offer no answer to the real problems in Italy, and history sends sends us a chilling warning – that we must fight these new Mussolinis no matter how much they seek to camouflage themselves. Fascism, and the racist devision it thrives from, should not be normalised”.
Simone Rossi, Chair of Branch Committee
ANPI London, said:
“It is concerning that a quarter of voters in Italy showed their support to a party with members both at local and national level showing their nostalgia for a regime that had led the country into poverty and to a disastrous war on the side of nazi Germany.
“Historical memory of what that regime and fascism meant for Italy has not been passed to the generations born after the end of World War II, evidently.
“As the organisation representing the last survivors of the fight against Hitler’s and Mussolini’s regimes and as antifascists we will carry on with our work of keeping historical memory alive and of opposing fascism in its new forms in the present day.”
For more information, interviews and further quotes:
info@standuptoracism.org.uk
NOTE:
Stand Up To Racism is a broad based anti racist organisation supported by trade unions, faith and campaign organisations.
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